UPDATE: Surry supervisors OK land-use permits for coal power plant

Dendron resident Helen Eggleston plans to sell her home in Dendron if Old Dominion Electric Cooperatives proposal to build a $6-billion coal-fired power plant is approved.

Dendron resident Helen Eggleston plans to sell her home in Dendron if Old Dominion Electric Cooperatives proposal to build a $6-billion coal-fired power plant is approved. (Allison Williams, Daily Press)

The board signed off on rezoning and conditional-use permits for about 350 acres outside Dendron, where Old Dominion Electric Cooperative wants to build the $6 billion Cypress Creek Power Station. While the bulk of the project would be in the town, plans call for a fly ash landfill and water intake facility to be built in the county.

The Dendron Town Council approved rezoning and conditional-use applications for about 1,200 acres on Monday.

The action paves the way for the federal and state environmental agencies to begin testing on the site, said Old Dominion spokesman Jeb Hockman.

Approximately 250 people were part of the standing-room-only crowd that packed the Board of Supervisors' public hearing Thursday before the vote.

A coal-fueled power plant would be dangerous for residents of "God's country," said Surry County resident Sharon McCallister.

"Heavy metals exist, and there is no equipment to keep it out of the environment," said McCallister,

Old Dominion Electric Cooperative wants to build the $6 billion Cypress Creek Power Station on 1,600 acres in and around the town of Dendron.

After a lengthy, sometimes contentious meeting Monday, the Dendron Town Council approved the massive project.

Most of the project would be in Dendron, on the site of a former lumber mill operation. The company has proposed putting the plant's landfill and a water intake facility — which would withdraw and return about 26 million gallons of water daily from the James River — on about 350 acres in the county.

Old Dominion is proffering to give the county access to up to 2 million of water per day, which could be a boon for future economic development ventures; to make road improvements to Route 31; and to donate $200,000 for improvements to the Surry County Library.

Also, the project would add approximately $22.2 million annually in tax revenue to county coffers, company officials said.

Several speakers opposed the project, saying toxins the plant emits would harm the environment and endanger the health of people living within a 30-mile radius.

Supporters argue that the project will bring much-need jobs and revenue to the county.

Once land-use applications have been approved, environmental agencies — including the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and the Army Corps of Engineers — will begin their respective environmental and air quality testing, said Old Dominion spokesman Jeb Hockman. As part of the permitting process, those agencies will hold additional public hearings in the community, he said.

While the Surry officials were meeting Thursday, neighboring Sussex County's Board of Supervisors and Planning Commission approved Old Dominion Electric Cooperative's conditional-use permit application for 1,200 acres proposed as an alternate site for the power plant.

County officials there have publicly said their rural county would welcome the plant, and the proposal hasn't encountered a significant amount of public opposition there, Hockman said.

SURRY — Opponents of a proposed coal-fueled power plant in Dendron have filed a lawsuit alleging that the Dendron Town Council violated state code last month when it approved land-use permits for the facility.

The Obama administration proposed new rules Thursday for how federal agencies should apply one of the nation's signature environmental laws, a move that could affect construction of new coal-fired power plants and other government-approved projects that produce large amounts of greenhouse...

ISLE OF WIGHT — Pollutants emitted by a 1,500-megawatt coal-fueled power plant proposed for Surry County could have far-reaching, long-lasting health and environmental fallouts for Hampton Roads, according to a spokesman with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

– A panel of speakers will discuss the potential health and environmental impact of Old Dominion Electric Cooperative's proposed coal-fueled power plant in neighboring Surry County during a community forum next week.

The battle over whether a big coal-fired power plant should be built in southeastern Virginia doesn't have just one front. While opponents have been focusing on one site, centered on Dendron in Surry County, it's been all quiet on the Western Front — out a little farther, in Sussex...

Despite public pleas for an independent environmental study, the Surry County Board of Supervisors on Thursday unanimously approved land-use permits that could bring the state's largest coal-fueled power plant to the rural county.